


Outside In

by QuantumGhosts



Category: Naruto
Genre: Alternate Universe - Time Travel, Gen, Haruno Sakura-centric, Time Travel
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-06-20
Updated: 2019-06-08
Packaged: 2020-04-12 15:14:42
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,240
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19134652
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/QuantumGhosts/pseuds/QuantumGhosts
Summary: An adult Sakura accidentally gets sent back into her twelve-year-old body - quite literally, because she quickly discovers that she's become her own Inner Sakura.Sakura learns to put herself first. Not really fix-it fic, mostly just Sakura giving herself a second chance at life.





	Outside In

**Author's Note:**

> This is something I started in 2017 and never got around to finishing, but I figured hey, maybe if I post it I'll feel more motivated to add more to it in between chapters of my main fic! This one is just a chill time for myself so you'll have a better time if you don't think about the plot too hard. It's basically just a character exploration on Sakura because she deserves so much more than she ever got.

It all started with a simple extraction mission gone horribly wrong.

Sakura was dying, and in the spur of the moment, Tsunade and Kakashi combined their techniques in order to attempt what had never been attempted before - restoring a life with the very life they were trying to save by the power of Kamui and a parody of Chiyo’s One’s Own Life Reincarnation technique combined.

The combined technique boiled down to using the life of a Sakura from another dimension to restore the life of the Sakura in _their_ dimension. This, of course, required for multi-dimensional theory to be true, but given that space-time jutsu was a thing and Kamui was a thing, chances were there was _something_ that could be pulled and used, if not her own alternate life.

And if the alternate Sakura theory _did_ turn out to be true, they tried not to think too hard about how that might consequently kill said alternate Sakura.

It was all very theoretical to begin with, but with no other options and an invaluable medical kunoichi who might die if they tried something crazy, but would _definitely_ die if they didn’t, it was worth the risk. _Sakura_ was worth the risk.

And although they did technically save her life, it unfortunately wasn’t in the way they had hoped.

Not that they’d ever know, because the next time Sakura regained consciousness, she was twelve years old again.

She awoke with a start to the horrible feeling of being pushed and shoved. It was loud both inside her mind and out, and everything was a white blur, as though lights were being shined in her eyes. Her body felt distant - foreign to herself and out of her control, as though she were drowning in a dream, thrashing desperately to find some sort of anchor amidst the disorientation and confusion. Sakura wasn’t sure exactly what was going on; all she knew was that she had to _push back._

A loud, obnoxious voice is what finally grounded her.

“You’ve come this far!!!” Naruto’s nostalgically prepubescent voice yelled. “If you lose to that Sasuke-obsessed idiot, you’re not a woman!!!”

Despite the headache it caused, it was comforting in its own familiar way, and it gave her an idea of where exactly she was.

_“You’d better get out of my head, Ino-pig!”_

Something about her voice was off, but she ignored it for now in favour of pushing against the intrusive mind that was actively fighting for control over her body.

 _“W-What the hell?!”_ echoed Ino’s young voice.

Finally, things started to become clearer. Sakura still felt like she was in a lucid dream, but it was enough for her to move and grab the small image of Ino in the infinitely vast mindscape that she was starting to establish herself in.

 _“You should really get going before I throw you out myself,”_ Sakura said with a mildly threatening smile that she mastered by the age of ten.

With a clear understanding that she wasn’t going to win this internal battle, Ino formed the cancellation seal with Sakura’s physical body and retreated back to her own, which finally gave Sakura the chance to regroup, because there were obviously some things she had to think about.

Mainly, that she was no longer a married adult with a daughter. She was back at the preliminary matches of her first Chuunin Exams, where her fight with Ino reached a temporary break but was resuming too soon for her to process anything more than that.

“Two minds…” Ino said between gasps. “What are you?”

Sakura went to answer, but froze when she heard - _felt_ \- that while it was her voice that answered, it wasn’t the right one that spoke.

“Didn’t you know?” a much younger version of her voice replied. “Women have to be tough to survive.”

There was no time to really think about what to do or say, because a battle was a battle and the next attack always came sooner than you’d think. Even if it had been over twenty years, Sakura still remembered every second of the battle that rekindled her friendship with her childhood friend, so when she felt her body rush forward and saw Ino’s do the same, she spoke without thinking and thought only about her instinct to _not_ get punched in the face.

 _“Dodge right!!”_ she yelled as loud as her seemingly soundless voice would allow, because she distinctly remembered Ino following through with her punch so well that dodging left didn’t work at all.

At least she could say dodging didn’t work for Ino the first time around, either, but this time was different.

There was a distinct lack of crackling pain ripping across her jaw and instead only the distant feeling of her right fist colliding with bone and flesh.

Her body froze, and she could hear the confusion and alarm coming from her headmate in the mindscape.

 _What just happened?_ The other Sakura asked inaudibly. _That...That wasn’t my voice…!_

 _“Ah, technically it was,”_ Sakura answered, her voice carrying a slight echo that her headmate’s didn’t. _“More importantly, you just made it to the finals.”_

Her body moved without her, lowering her arm and blinking at Ino laying unconscious on the floor. She was breathing, of course, but it was still a shocking sight to see.

“The winner of the fourth match, Haruno Sakura!”

“ALRIGHT!” Naruto yelled from the balcony.

Asuma appeared next to Ino just then to lift her carefully from the ground, and Sakura held her breath for the brief moment she realized how long it had been since she’d seen the man. On the outside, the other Sakura seemed to snap out of the shock of beating Ino unconscious and took a shaky step towards her rival’s sensei.

“Is she going to be alright?”

The jounin flashed her a warm smile and nodded. “She should regain consciousness in thirty minutes or so. Good match.”

Sakura felt her body sigh in relief before slowly making her way back up to the balcony. The younger Sakura was stunned, to say the least, given how she barely responded to Naruto’s loud cheering and Kakashi’s praise.

Sakura, having had time to finally wrap her head around the situation, decided to make herself more properly known.

 _“For what it’s worth, I’m just as confused as you are,”_ she offered. _“But, to be fair, I think I’m better equipped to handle the situation we’re in.”_

 _And...what exactly is that?_ The younger Sakura answered, leaning against the wall. _More importantly, who are you? How did you know to dodge?_

Sakura paused for a moment as she tried to find the right words to answer her younger self’s questions. She decided that being direct and honest was the best way to go.

 _“I’m you from a little over twenty years in the future,”_ she replied with a short laugh, because it sounded that much more ridiculous when she said it out loud. _“And I think I just became your Inner Self.”_

* * *

The rest of the matches gave enough time for Sakura to explain to her younger self, in better detail, what she thought had happened.

She had also decided that, since she was the one on the inside, her younger self would henceforth be known as Outer Sakura.

 _“The last thing I remember is being fatally injured after a mission gone terribly wrong. I think I got sent back here after Ts--”_ Sakura cut herself off as she suddenly remembered when exactly Tsunade became Hokage, and why.

She looked through Outer Sakura’s eyes and towards the Sandaime standing right at the edge her peripheral vision. She wasn’t as close to the Sandaime was she was to Tsunade-sama, but he was still, of course, an invaluable part of her early life and career as a shinobi. Sakura took a deep breath and shook it off; she could mourn later, after the pressing matters at hand had been dealt with.

 _After what?_ Outer Sakura asked, prompting her to finish her explanation.

 _“Right, sorry,”_ Sakura replied, gathering her thoughts. _“After a couple of high-level shinobi tried to heal me with an experimental jutsu. What’s important, though, is that I’m from the future, and I seem to be stuck in your body.”_

She decided to omit Tsunade-sama and Kakashi-sensei’s names for now, just in case Outer Sakura got sidetracked from the more pressing issues at hand. Sakura really needed to know how her younger self was going to deal with the situation in order to establish how _she_ was doing to deal with it - namely, whether or not she was going to act as some sort of clairvoyant, if she even wanted to.

 _This is crazy!_ Outer Sakura exclaimed, her body tensing against the balcony railing. Anybody who might’ve been watching her body language probably would have just assumed it was in reaction to the ongoing battle, though. _How am I supposed to believe any of this? Oh no, I’m going crazy, aren’t I?!_

Sakura almost forgot how excitable she was as a child. Admittedly, she still was, but she had it much more under control. Her younger self had seemed so calm about it when she first spoke, too, but it was possible that the level of freaking out only increased with time - and hopefully decrease again with even more time.

 _“You’re not crazy,”_ Sakura sighed.

 _Okay, assuming I’m not, how am I supposed to trust you? I’m not dumb enough to just_ believe _the voice that suddenly started talking to me in my head! For all I know, you’re somebody using a jutsu similar to Ino’s to get inside my head. You could be working for that sicko Orochimaru!_

All fair points, and Sakura was rather proud and relieved that she had an appropriate sense of caution and paranoia at the tender age of twelve, all while not freaking out immediately and announcing to everybody within earshot that there was a voice in her head claiming to be her from the future.

Of all the people to be trapped in the mind of, Sakura was glad it was her own and not, for example, Naruto’s.

 _“I’m just you from the future. If anything, I’d like to help, if at all possible,”_ Sakura sighed. _“I’ll prove it - Temari beats Tenten.”_

Just as she said this, Tenten’s unconscious body landed on Temari’s fan with a loud crack, causing Outer Sakura to flinch.

“Winner; Temari!” Hayate - Sakura bit her lip as she suddenly remembered how _he_ was killed as well - announced.

 _That was just one match,_ Outer Sakura quipped. _If you’re really from the future, you should be able to tell me the outcomes of_ all _the matches._

_“Would it make you believe me?”_

Outer Sakura paused before nodding, froze upon realizing that she was responding to the voice that only she could hear with an action that everyone could see, then repeated the action again to make it seem like she was nudging a strand of hair out of her face.

 _It’d help, yes,_ Outer Sakura replied, shaking off her blunder.

_“Alright. I don’t remember the exact order of the matches, but Temari beats Tenten, Shino beats the Sound shinobi with broken arms, Gaara beats Lee-kun--”_

_What? He loses?_ The genin sounded shocked, which was at least better than being disgusted like she was the first time she met the guy.

_“Gaara’s no joke - he’s probably the strongest genin here, so to speak.”_

If strength was measured by bloodlust and lack of empathy, that is.

 _No way… He_ does _look kinda creepy, though._

 _“That he is,”_ Sakura nodded, amused as he remembered the matured Kazekage he eventually became. _“Anyway, Shikamaru beats the kunoichi from sound, Naruto beats Kiba--”_

 _Really?!_ Her voice was so loud it echoed and bounced around in the mindscape, which felt like both a mental and physical beating to Sakura. _That’s amazing!! I was a little worried about who he’d be matched up against, but there’s no way he’d lose to a guy like Kiba!_

Sakura couldn’t help but smile. It was that very same belief in Naruto that carried her through the hardest years of her life. He wasn’t perfect, but she was glad she grew out of seeing him as an idiot and more as a shinobi earlier on. Otherwise, he may have never become the valuable friend she’d come to value and cherish.

 _“I wouldn’t lie about something like that,”_ Sakura grinned. _“Not all the matches are as awesome, though. Lee got seriously injured by Gaara and will have to undergo surgery after his battle, but don’t worry - he’ll survive and go on to become one of Konoha’s greatest shinobi.”_

 _One of the best?_ Her younger self sounded hopeful.

 _"Yep!_ " Sakura said. " _He's really something else."_

She could feel the warmth of Outer Sakura's thoughts and smiled in turn.

“ _Finally, the other shinobi from sound beats Chouji,"_ Sakura said, completing her predictions.

Of course, the rest of the matches passed just as she'd said.

 _You’re sure Lee-san will be okay, right?_ Outer Sakura asked uneasily as she made her way back down to the arena with the rest of the finalists.

_“Absolutely sure. It’ll be hard on him for a long time, but there’s always something to gain no matter how bad a situation seems.”_

_It's good to know, but it doesn't make it any less difficult to see,_ her Outer Sakura thought with a sigh, standing next to Naruto before the Hokage and the exam proctors. _And...what about Sasuke-kun?_

What a weighted question, Sakura thought. There were so many ways she could answer that.

 _“...He’s alive, and will be well enough to train for and participate in the finals,”_ she eventually answered, keeping it simple and straightforward, because anything more would result in a monologue, she was sure.

 _Thank goodness._ Outer Sakura sighed a breath of relief.

Naruto seemed to interpret this different and patted her on the back with a grin. “Don’t be so worried, Sakura-chan! You’ll kick ass in the third round, just like you did today!”

Sakura could feel the faint tug of her cheeks as the one in control smiled. “Thanks, Naruto.”

Meanwhile, Sakura was watching the familiar scene with a bittersweet smile. The Sandaime was standing _right there_ \- so close she could almost smell his pipe. He spoke with the smile she didn’t realize she missed, in the voice she found comfort in, uttering words that she was happy to hear once again.

Her nostalgia was quickly replaced with hatred and disgust, for behind him was the man who ruined everything disguised as a jounin sensei of the Sound team. Sakura wasn’t sure how, but she wanted to make sure Orochimaru died before he could even _think_ about tearing her team and village apart.

Sure, he eventually settled into a non-threatening state, but not before killing the Sandaime, destroying the village, and taking Sasuke. She had never forgiven him - she’d only ever come to tolerate his existence - but so long as she had a chance to make a difference, she would. The neutrality he maintained in the future wasn’t worth the pain he’d caused in the past, she thought.

And not wanting to destroy the village anymore was hardly an act of redemption, anyway. That was just normal.

“Three.” Outer Sakura’s voice suddenly cut through the mindscape, startling Sakura back into remembering that she wasn’t alone in her thoughts any more.

 _“Wait, three?”_ Sakura asked. _“You drew number three?”_

_Yeah, why?_

Ibiki spoke right after, confirming Sakura’s worries. “That leaves Uchiha Sasuke with number four.”

 _What does that mean? Does that mean Sasuke-kun and I are paired up?!_ Outer Sakura thought excitedly.

Sakura laughed nervously and leaned back into the weightless mindscape. _“You could say that.”_

The kunoichi’s excitement was immediately replaced with dread when the Sandaime announced that the finals was tournament style. This, of course, meant that Outer Sakura’s first match was against none other than Sasuke.

“W-Wait…!” she stammered, eyes glued to the tournament matchups being held before them. “I...I’m fighting against Sasuke-kun?!”

_You could have told me!_

_“I didn’t know this would happen!”_

_How?! I thought you’ve been through this before!_

_“Not like this! I didn’t pass the preliminaries the first time - I got knocked out with Ino! Our match ended in a draw!”_

_WHAT?! Then why didn’t that happen this time?!_

_“Probably because I told you to dodge, which is better than getting a concussion!”_

“No way! You’re so lucky, Sakura-chan!!” Naruto cried, interrupting their silent argument and turning to his teammate while raising his fists to his chest the way he did when he got restless.

“Shut up!” the kunoichi snapped, hitting him in the arm. “How am I supposed to fight Sasuke-kun of all people?!”

“I’ll fight him! Trade numbers with me!”

“The matchups are final. If we make any changes, it wouldn’t be fair,” Hayate said between coughs.

“It’s not fair already,” Outer Sakura sighed, dropping her head. “What am I doing to do…?”

 _“You’re going to prepare for what’s going to happen in a month,”_ Sakura said, running her hands through her hair, _“because the last person you should hold back against is Sasuke.”_

* * *

“It’s not just that I love him,” Outer Sakura started as she paced back and forth in her bedroom, drying her hair with a towel after a much-needed shower. Sakura was still convinced that it was called the Forest of Death because that’s what everybody smelled like after getting out. “He’s on a whole other level than I am! Even if I _wanted_ to beat Sasuke, I wouldn’t be able to!”

 _“You_ should _want to beat him. Otherwise you’d be holding back on your opponent, and what kind of chuunin does that? There won’t be any hard feelings - just think of it as a spar with an audience. Also, you shouldn’t reply to me out loud. It’s a bad habit._

“But it’s more comfortable this way, and thinking feels weird now that you’re in there,” the genin muttered, shaking her head. “I don’t know… He knows all my skills and how I fight, and even if I know what he’s capable of, he’s still stronger overall.”

 _“You just don’t know how to take advantage of your strengths,”_ Sakura said. _“Kakashi-sensei said he’s enlisted the help of a few colleagues to help train the you three individually, right? That way you can train without showing each other all your cards.”_

Outer Sakura made a doubtful noise. “How much can I really learn in one month, though?”

Sakura scoffed, already getting used to the way it echoed in the mindscape. _“Give yourself a little more credit. It took you less than a minute to learn how to walk up a tree,”_ she reminded, fondly watching the blurry images of that time play in the mindscape as her younger self recalled the memory. _“Plus, you have me.”_

“What about you?” the genin asked.

Sakura grinned. _“Well, who better to teach you than yourself?”_

Outer Sakura made a sort of uncertain, whining sound as she sat on her bed with a flop. “I guess...but it still doesn’t change the fact that I’m fighting Sasuke-kun.”

 _“You should get some rest,”_ Sakura said, blatantly changing the subject. _“You’ll have plenty of time to worry about these things tomorrow.”_

“I guess so,” she sighed as she closed the light and tucked herself in.  “Maybe I’ll know what to do about _you_ when I wake up, too.”


End file.
